College Football Preview: Tulane

Tulane Green Wave

2015 Results: 3-9 (1-7, 5th in West)

Returning Starters: 3 OFF, 6 DEF, 2 SP

2016 Schedule

September

1st at Wake Forest

10th SOUTHERN

17th NAVY

24th LOUISIANA

October

1st Massachusetts

7th at Central Florida

14th MEMPHIS

22nd at Tulsa

29th SMU

November

12th at Houston

19th TEMPLE

26th at Connecticut

Willie Fritz has won everywhere he has been. A long time couch in FCS, he made the jump to the FBS level the same year that Georgia Southern did. Fritz went 17-7 in the two years that he led the Eagles and won a bowl. Now he takes on a bigger challenge. Tulane has long been a bottom dweller in college football. Fritz hopes to turn around the culture. He has his job cut out for him with this team that has had back-to-back 3-9 seasons.

On offense, Tulane will run the Triple Option that has worked for Fritz wherever he went. It will take some adjusting, but soon enough the Green Wave will fair just fine. The position that Fritz thinks so highly of is, you guessed it, the running backs. Tulane has four backs that can easily plug into the Triple Option and run it as good as they can hope in the first year. Junior Dontrell Hilliard will be the main man in the offense. On the poor team a year ago, Hilliard managed to rack up 646 yards with a 5.6 per carry clip. The two quarterbacks to chose from are redshirt sophomore Glen Cuiellette and true freshman Darius Bradwell. Cuiellette is expected to get the nod as starter seeing as he has the most experience. He has played one down of collegiate football. The leading returning receiver is a converted tight end Trey Scott. He caught 18 passes last year.

Tulane's defense was their downfall last year. They gave up 412.2 yards per game and allowed 36.3 points per contest. Returning on defense is senior defensive tackle Tanzel Smart. Smart clogged up the middle last year for the Green Wave while recording 62 tackles with 15 of them being for loss. Also returning is linebacker Nico Marley, an undersized player for his position. The defense has plenty of holes. They have shuffled people around in hopes of filling them, but it will need to be more improved before they can hope to compete.

Player to Watch: Nico Marley



Marley is the senior leader of this defense. Might be undersized, but he is the biggest part of this defense. He has registered 82 tackles in each of the last two seasons. 

If you only watch them once, watch: 

9/24 Louisiana

Tulane has zero rivals. LSU dropped them because the rivalry wasn't competitive for nearly 60 years. When they moved to the AAC, Southern Miss dropped them. Louisiana (formerly UL-Lafayette) is the only in-state game on their schedule. Would be nice to start on a consistent basis. 

What to Expect 

There's too much uncertainty on both sides of the ball. Fritz will have a harder time turning Tulane around like he had teams at his other stops. It can be done, but not this year. 

Prediction

(3-9, 1-7 AAC)

-Dug

@chansm1th